One of first things I had to learn when I decided to try for a career in the Film and TV music business was just how patient you have to be when it comes to getting paid. Take the title of this entry for example - "April showers bring..." - Most of you would probably complete that phrase by adding "May flowers." But to give you a better idea of what I'm talking about, let me change it up a bit and say it this way... April 2010 placements bring December 2010 royalties... So as you can see, patience is a necessity in this business. That's one of the aspects of this "glamorous" business that I end up having to explain the most to my non-music biz friends.

And speaking of April placements... For the first time ever, I know about a placement in advance of the show actually airing! I'm not sure which specific track is being used, but during Act 3 of tonight's episode of Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory, I have a 20 second cue being used. I'm fairly certain it'll be an uptempo hard rock/metal cue. The show airs at 9:30pm Eastern. Check it out!

The last couple of weeks have been pretty busy, packed with old friends and new ones. I had a chance to spend some time with a group of friends a couple weeks back at an event we like to call "Composer Camp." It's a very informal gathering of composers who get together and share tips and tricks of the trade, ranging from software packages and mixing techniques to the business side of the biz and much more. One attendee made a video of the event. There may even be a scene of me attempting to play a viola in the video...

The week after that I had a chance to attend a seminar here in Nashville on film composing. It was presented by the Nashville Composers Association and the speaker was Shawn Clement. Shawn has a long list of credits but the thing I knew him from was being the composer for Season 1 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was great (and at times scary) getting to hear some of the stories he shared about what it's like living in LA as a working composer. I had a chance to meet some new composer friends that are local to the Nashville area, as well as some that were from out of state. All in all, it was a fun weekend, but I have no video to share of that one.

I'm up against a couple of deadlines this week for one of my libraries. I've been trying to write some "Dramatic Action" cues for Reality TV. Unfortunately, I've been suffering from a condition that I've decided to call "Writer's Detour." It's definitely not "Writer's Block." I'm not having a problem coming up with new material, but I am having a problem coming up with the "right" material. Hopefully that trend will not continue for much longer!

Remember to tune in tonight to the Fantasy Factory show on MTV at 9:30pm, especially if you have a Nielsen box!